Petition signers beware

Monday

The petitions are out there in every parking lot, hot 'n' heavy this time of year.

Two things you should be aware of: First, it is against the law to lie about what the intent of the initiative you are gathering signatures for. Second, it is violated every day and never prosecuted.

Paid signature gatherers receive between $3 and $15 per signature and when you see these folks handling more than one petition, you know it is their job and they could care less if you have a clue about what you are signing. The only petition worth looking at this year is the one circulating to remove the gas tax and increased vehicle fees that also makes it law that WE, the people, get to vote on future tax increases. A simple prospect, right? Not if your entire political existence depends on giving money to constituencies who will help you get reelected.

Another whopper being circulated is the attempt to damage our Prop 13 protections by adopting “split-roll” property taxes. This will allow the state to stick it to all commercially owned property each year with higher taxes.

What, you say, do I care about some big corporate office having to pay more property tax? We will all will pay this tax. If you, your business, your employer or any business you frequent rents or leases space from any corporate property owner (like McDonald's or your favorite grocery chain), these increases will be passed along in higher rents. Higher rents mean higher costs of doing business which results in one of two things: reduce other costs by cutting employees or services, or raising prices.

This tax initiative has some smarmy feel-good name that leads you to believe it will be spent on schools when that is NOT the case. As we know from past sad experiences, once you give them the money, the politicians spend it wherever they want, regardless of promises or words on a page. If money could fix our schools, we would already be number one. Sadly, it cannot.

Thanks Ben

I love what happened the other day. Just to start out on the right foot, the proper term is Daylight Saving Time — no 's.' Any reference to Daylight Savings Time is incorrect and poor grammar. So, from here forward, it will be DST.

Good old Ben Franklin wryly observed in his journal — while ambassador to France in 1784 — that “the sun gives off light as soon as it rises.” This was a little shot at the Parisians who liked to party by candlelight late into the night and sleep the day away.

William Willet, of England, was the first to officially propose moving the clock to take advantage of more sunshine, but the Parliament rejected his idea in 1909,1910,1911 and 1912. Willet died in 1915, but sure enough when World War I began, Germany adopted DST to save needed fuel oil and a month later, so did England. America jumped on board in 1918 when we joined the war, too. President Wilson wanted to make DST permanent after the war, but farmers hated the idea and a bill to terminate DST was adopted even over a presidential veto.

Less than a month after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, we were back on DST in America. Unfortunately, it was an “every town choose for themselves” policy and it was not uncommon to have two towns only a few miles away from each other following different clocks.

In 1966, Congress finally passed the Uniform Time Act which stipulated that you could opt out of DST, but if you were in, you had to follow the start and end dates set by the feds. Since that time, DST has been expanded three times because of energy concerns. Two states — Hawaii and Arizona — have opted out of DST. We return to regular time Nov. 4. Enjoy this extra daytime while you can.

Russia adopted year-round DST in 2011, but few like it. The sun doesn’t rise in Moscow until 10 a.m. much of the year. No wonder they are in a sour mood all the time.

Shoe is on the other foot

Not long ago, you couldn’t be conservative enough to be a Republican. The Tea Party and other groups tried to push the GOP further right. That effort, in my opinion, cost the GOP moderates, conservative-leaning Dems and independents. Now, happily, we find the Democrats learned nothing from watching the GOP self-mutilate itself for eight years.

The Dems are now too progressive to endorse Diane Feinstein or any of their gubernatorial candidates because they haven’t gone full Bernie enough to suit the far-right elements now taking control of the California party. Great! I hope this continues until they find a local version of Elizabeth Warren whose platform and preferred policies scare the snot out of almost everyone on all sides of reasonable policy issues.

As California rushes toward the brick wall of pension debt and a declining tax-payer base, far-right policies will just speed up the trip over that cliff that one can see on the horizon.

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